Lately, there have been a seemingly insurmountable number of fires to put out in my life. Whenever one shows up, I have a tendency to blindly react, to drop everything I’m doing and put it out. While this works for small inconveniences, life inevitably hits with bigger fires, to the point where blind reactivity fails miserably.
It seems counterintuitive, but when shit really hits the fan we need to step back and plan our attack. Rather than reacting as quickly as possible, we need to allow the fires to temporarily grow while we figure out how to put them out. I’ve found there are two advantages to this:
- We find that some fires aren’t ours to put out in the first place, or aren’t really fires at all.
- The stopping gives us a sense of control over the situation, providing a calm confidence that empowers better problem solving.
Next time life hands you a fire, take a minute to breathe. It’s probably not worth the worry anyway.